JACQUES COURTOIS CALLED IL BORGOGNONE (1621-1676) - Receive artist alerts » - More items from this artist »

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Black chalk, pen and brown ink, grey wash.

152.00mm wide    100.00mm high    (5.98 inches wide  3.94 inches high)

Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 18 April 1989, lot 147.

Good

In his century, Jacques Courtois was considered the outstanding battle painter of the age and is credited with inventing a new vision. The eighteenth century art biographer Lione Pascoli likened him to Raphael, and Bernini admired his intensity and realism. Whilst Courtois received his early training from his father Jean-Pierre, he had arrived in Milan by the age of fifteen and remained in Italy more or less until the end of his life. It is in Bologna that he met Guido Reni and Francesco Albani, followed by visits to Florence and Siena where he came into contact with various French and Dutch artists. Interestingly, the most profound impact on the artist came from his stay in Rome from 1640 . However, the artist’s style changed following his wife’s death in 1654 , and after extensive travels in Italy and Germany, he returned to Rome where he entered the Jesuit order in 1657 , becoming a priest 11 years later. It is during a sojourn in Rome that the young Joseph Parrocel (1646-1704) became his pupil.

An important part of his creative process, the present spirited and vigorous small sheet is typical in style, technique and subject matter of many of the draughtsman’s drawings . Full of movement and fire, his battles scenes are distinctively set within a spacious landscape, with background of rocky cliffs and mountains, the human drama often echoed by turbulent skies. The largest group of drawings by the artist are in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen; Musee du Louvre, Paris; Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London; Getty Museum, Malibu; Cincinatti Art Museum.